


We Found Love in a Hopeless Place

by Chronicles_of_Scout



Series: Kalex 2018 [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 08:05:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16301261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chronicles_of_Scout/pseuds/Chronicles_of_Scout
Summary: Alex is about to get deported so she does what any rational person would do and marries her patient.





	We Found Love in a Hopeless Place

** We Found Love in a Hopeless Place **

Alex inhaled.

Exhaled slowly.

Blinked disbelieving eyes at the mirror.

Splashed more water on her face.

Grabbed a hand towel to dry and caught a glimpse of the silver band on her left ring finger.

Fuck.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”Kara’s face came from outside her bathroom door.“I asked you hundreds of times if you were sure about this.You didn’t have to—”

“I’m fine.”Alex countered, wincing at the slight squeak in her voice and trying again with a cleared throat.“I’m fine.I want to do this.I told you, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

Which is what Alex had been saying since she’d woken up married.

She couldn’t even blame it on liquor.Not really.

She’d been way more drunk than she had last night and had still managed to not wake up married.

To a woman of all things.

An extremely attractive woman to be sure but a _woman._

Her mother was going to have a field day.

Whatever this was her fault anyway.

Trying not to look too freaked out, Alex steeled herself and opened the door.She must have made a face when she saw Kara sitting nervously on the edge of her bed because the blonde bounced up immediately.

“Sorry.”Kara muttered dragging a hand through her hair before pushing at the sleeves of her navy hoodie when it slipped over her palms.She had a bag at her ankles that she nearly tripped over when she stood, her ripped jeans flowing over the pink ratty converse on her feet.“I shouldn’t have—”

“Kara.”Alex interrupted again with a wave of her hand, trying to control her future facial expressions.“It really is fine.If we’re going to make this work, we have to be a real couple.Do real couple things.”

Kara’s mouth pinched and she leveled Alex with a look.“People don’t tend to want dirty homeless freaks on their thousand-thread-count sheets.”

And yes, Alex had indeed married an extremely attractive _homeless_ woman.She was batting five for five here.

At least she could say she’d known Kara before she’s accidentally proposed their current situation as the cure to all of their mutual woes.Kara was a patient of hers that came in about once every other month for treatment for her asthma.Honestly Alex would have preferred to see her on a regular basis as her primary instead of when the blonde was forced to stop in because her breathing was about to result in her fatality.

Unfortunately, since asthma was a pre-existing condition, the free government healthcare didn’t cover its treatment.And, because Kara was homeless and jobless, she didn’t qualify for any other programs.Alex knew she was an orphan, had no other family but a baby cousin in foster care, and that she paid for the few emergency pumps she had been able to score by doing caricatures of people in the street.

She’d shown Alex a few of her ‘duds’ during one of her longer stays and Alex had told her she had real talent.She’d wanted to say more, ask her about her education but the girl’s heartrate had spiked and her asthma attack had forced Alex to take more extreme treatment measures.She’d forgotten about it in the bustle that followed.

“That’s fair.”Alex said with a nod, ruffling her own hair as she stepped further into the room.“Except that doesn’t really apply to you anymore does it?”She winced internally at her extreme lack of charm in this situation.“And also, I never thought you were dirty.”

A lie.

Even though she liked Kara as a person, Alex was a doctor and she _knew_ the science involved in homelessness.It was a monumental task to keep clean, and even when you were successful, often the clothes you wore were not.There were obviously levels to it, and while Kara’s look didn’t project any ‘grunge’, her clothes had probably touched one too many subway cars for Alex to be comfortable with on her bed.

“Nice save.”Kara blushed and ducked her head, her fingers picking at her nails.“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Shaking her head, Alex walked over to the younger woman and took her hands.

“Kara, I’m pretty sure you’re getting the shorter end of the stick here.Yeah, you might be getting better healthcare with my insurance, but you still have to stay married to me for 5 years to stay my deportation.”

Kara’s lips twitched, her fingers squeezing Alex’s gently.“To Canada.”

Alex rolled her eyes.“I’ll have you know that that is as dire as it sounds.”

“No yeah,” Kara teased, her smile finally coming out showing a flash of surprisingly white teeth.God, Alex hoped she wasn’t a complete bigot.“Because hanging out with friendly people who have moose friends and lots of flannel sounds terrible.”

“We also had Justin Beiber.That should tell you something about the day to day.”Alex said with a scowl.“And it’s _cold.”_

Alex was not made for the cold.Had never been.Her native Canadian parents had been more than a little through with her antics of turning herself into a human burrito at the slightest Canadian wind.As soon as she’d been able to, she’d applied to every American College imaginable and had worked her ass off so that they would never have reason to send her back to the frozen tundra.

She’d gotten a working Visa for her current hospital, where she’d done her residency and had just finished her fellowship.Bad timing since her visa had also expired.Last night.

Hence why when drunk her had seen very sober Kara packing up her art supplies after a day of sketching, she’d popped the question.

Kara had looked at her like she was nuts.

Alex remembers that much.

She also remembers that when she had seen Kara she’d immediately decided to ask her, instead of the dozens of guys that she had seen at the bar, because she’d thought Kara had been so beautiful.

A beautiful wife, she’d thought dreamily.That would make her so happy.

She pulled away from Kara with a last soft squeeze as the blonde laughed at her expense and walked over to her chest of drawers.

It’s not like Alex hadn’t known she was gay.I mean, she hadn’t _known_ but she _had_ made an educated guess.It was just that, with her crazy school and work schedule, and her absolute determination not to go back to Canada unless to see her parents… well, she hadn’t really had a lot of time to explore it.

And now she was married.

To a woman.

An attractive woman to be sure but…

“Here.”She said, pushing a towel into Kara’s arms and leading her to the bathroom where she rested the stack of clothes she had gathered on the closed toilet.“Why don’t you wash up and put these on?Our first test is about to arrive and I think it’d be best if we… dress you up a bit.”

Kara gave her another amused smile.“We’re going to need to work on your compliments Dr. Danvers.After this is all over, I’d very much like it if I wasn’t your _only_ marriage.”

Alex scowled and made a rude gesture, Kara’s laugh following her out of the bathroom.

~*~

This had been a terrible idea.

Alex tried to force her hand to stop shaking long enough for her to get some food on her fork.Terrible, stupid, terrible!

Her mother sat at the head of Alex’s immaculate dining room table, a glass of wine in her hand as she regarded Kara with calculating interest.Her dad sat on the other end and looked just as uncomfortable as Alex felt.

Terrible!

“So Kara,” Eliza prompted, taking a small sip of her wine.“How did you and my daughter meet?”

She had tried getting Alex to talk earlier, but her daughter had been speechless ever since Kara had stepped out of the bathroom in the soft cream sweater and tights Alex had handed to her.Alex had tried very hard not to stare, but clean Kara—Kara with her hair freshly washed and blow dried—was beyond anything Alex would have been able to imagine.

Gone were the too large clothes that hid her figure.

In their stead was a sweater that was just a tad too big that kept slipping and revealing the smooth clean skin of her shoulder.And tights that wrapped sinfully around strong calves and thighs.

Alex had given her some jewelry and socks to finish off her look and now… well, speech was something that would have to wait until Alex’s heart stopped pounding.

Kara blushed but smiled politely as she finished chewing the mouthful of rice she had been inhaling.Alex should have fed her beforehand, made it less obvious how obviously _hungry_ the girl was.

“Oh.Well, I had an asthma attack and she was my treating doctor.I go to the free clinic on Birch St. and Alex was usually the one I’d see when it got really bad.”

Eliza frowned and set her glass down.“Oh, you poor dear.”Alex perked up.Yes!Play the sick card!Eliza was a sucker for hopeless causes!“Did Alex prescribe you something more permanent?I know they have a lot of programs that have been shown to reduce the symptoms by up to sixty percent.”

“Um yes, she did but… my insurance isn’t the best and it’s… been a bit of a struggle.But Alex has been great!Really.”

“Those damn insurance companies.”Jeremiah complained with a harsh stab of his fork.“They tie our hands with treatments and prescriptions and make doctors look incompetent.Idiots.”

“I told you to let me blow them up.”Alex insisted, finally on a topic choice she could flow with.“I had access to everything I needed as a Chem TA.”

Jeremiah gave her an adoring smile.“My little arsonist, all grown up and secretly married.”

Dammit Dad!

“How _did_ that happen?”Eliza asked, gaze bouncing between the two younger women.“Alex never even mentioned dating anyone, let alone wanting to marry.”

Alex glowered down at her plate.Stupid topic choice.“Smooth mom, earn me some more brownie points with my wife why don’t you?”

“Well I’m sorry but this is just a bit of a shock ok?”Eliza placed both her hands down on the table, her legendary ire being sparked by Alex’s.“Your father and I came down here expecting to help you move and instead you tell us that you’re married and have an application for a stay of deportation?Alex that sounds an awful lot like—”

“Eliza,” Jeremiah warned, “let’s not jump to conclusions.They’re young and impulsive.Especially Alex, this is hardly outside the realm of possibilities for her.”

Alex groaned some more and slumped further down in her chair.

Eliza glared at her.“If it’s real than tell me more about your _wife_.”

“Eliza.” Jeremiah tried.

“No,” those blue grey eyes turned to him and he quickly shut up.“If I am going to be a part of this sham I want to know what I’m getting into.”

“Mom—”

“Dr. Danvers, I completely understand your concern.”Kara interrupted, her fork laying forgotten by her plate, her hands somewhere under the table as she leaned closer to Alex’s mother.“For all intents and purposes this seems like a sham marriage and if I were in your shoes I’d be worried too.Alex is very precarious, she seems to make split second decision without thinking them all the way through.There was this one time where she actually paid for patient to fly out to her hospital from India with her own money, just so she could have a cool surgery.”A true story, though Alex had no idea how _Kara_ would know it.Kara sent a calming smile her way, and Alex’s heart stuttered in her chest.No way was she going to survive this with looks like _that._ “She’s headstrong and impulsive but she has the best heart.You raised a beautiful woman Dr. Danvers.”She turned those gorgeous blue eyes back to Eliza.

“And to be completely honest, yes we did get married because Alex’s Visa was expiring but that does not change the fact that I’ve been a little in love with Alex since the first time she walked me through an asthma attack.It was the worst one I’d ever had because I was freaking out about my art final.I was just nineteen years old and I think she must have been an intern because she _sucked_ so bad, but she never let go of my hand.Not once.She made it less scary; told me I wasn’t going to die.And when it was over and all the tubes had been taken away, she gave me Lilo and Stitch Band-Aids and a lollipop.I’m pretty sure she just wanted me to stop crying but it was adorable and I’ve never forgotten it.You don’t have to worry that we’re doing this for the wrong reasons Dr. Danvers.I think your daughter is… magnificent.”

Dinner had gone pretty smoothly after that.

Afterwards, Alex’s parents had taken her guestroom and Alex had locked her and Kara in her bedroom.There’d been a brief fight about the bed before Kara had bodily lifted her and dumped her on one side of her king-sized mattress.

The blonde had crawled into the other side and promptly closed her eyes.

Damn if that hadn’t been hot.

Still, Alex had laid awake for some time after, her thoughts all over the place as she tried to make sense of her next steps.

Drunk Alex had called up Lucy, a friend from her undergrad years who was now a practicing lawyer.Lucy had gotten ordained online when they were freshman and gay marriage had been made legal.She had performed many a marriage on behalf of her LGBTQ+ classmates.She had been grumpy and tired when she had married Alex and Kara last night, filing all of the paperwork for Alex with a knowing smile on her lips.Alex remembered smiling dopily, telling Lucy that she had found ‘the one’ when she thought Kara hadn’t been listening.Now that she was sober she remembered Kara had been the one keeping her steady through the less than perfect ceremony.

Huffing, she turned to take in Kara’s profile, taken aback once again by the woman’s beauty.Drunk her was a fucking genius.

“I didn’t know you were in school.”

Sober her, not so much.

Kara cracked an eye open before sighing and turning on her back, giving up all pretense of sleeping.

“Yeah…I’m studying at UCLA on scholarship.I’m a junior.”

Alex blinked.“Oh.”

Kara smirked and turned on her side.“Smooth.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“I forged an address.Signed up for paperless everything.Check my email at the library.The caricatures help pay for my books and supplies and I save the rest for my medication.It’s not the best solution but I can survive two more years.”

Alex turned to face her, her hand reaching for Kara’s in the middle of the bed between them.“You won’t have to worry about the medication anymore.Or your housing.You can put more money towards your future.”

Kara was already shaking her head.“It’s a nice offer Alex but I don’t believe in free rides.I’ll pay for my stay here.”

“You’re my _wife.”_ Alex insisted.“That means I get to take care of you.We can talk split duties if you want, I’m a terrible cook and I hate cleaning dishes, but I find laundry day to be very soothing.”

Kara stared at her for a moment, her expression searching before a small smile came over her face.“You would.”She teased gently.“I just… I don’t want to get used to this and then—”

“There’s an unequal distribution in power,” Alex said as she sat up, Kara mirroring her movements.“I can imagine that makes this all much scarier.”

Kara nodded and started picking at her nails again.

Balls of steel.

“I have feelings for you.”Alex said, staring straight ahead at the wall.“I kept trying to pass them off as an appreciation for your physical appearance but… I used to wait for you to come in.I volunteer at the free clinic because I know that’s where you usually go, not because I’m an altruistic maven of kindness.I just… I really like seeing you, being around you.But I didn’t really accept the fact that I was gay so this is all really new and I am _terrified_ that you are going to find something you don’t like about me and leave.So… yeah.I have the money but you… you have the high ground on the emotions part.”

She bit her lip when she was done, trying to distract herself from the racing of her heart.She jumped when Kara’s hand landed on her shoulder, the slightly roughened skin cupping her neck and turning her so that she could see Kara’s face.

Kara’s brows were raised, a look of awe on her face as she tugged Alex’s head closer.

“No, I don’t.”She breathed, before she sealed her lips over Alex’s and literal lightening coursed through Alex’s veins.

Drunk Alex was a fucking genius.

**Author's Note:**

> I pulled inspiration from Grey's Anatomy when Teddy married Henry to give him health insurance and also from the Proposal with Sandra Bullock. Just in case it wasn't clear, Kara and Alex have known each other for a while, lets say at least a year and each have a crush on the other. Alex's drunken marriage proposal was accepted by Kara for x reasons and now they have a chance to date.
> 
> Happy Endings Abound.


End file.
